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[ Music ]

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[ Foreign Language Spoken ]

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[ Airplane Engine ]

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[ Background Conversations ]

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>> We're trying to understand
the global carbon cycle,

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and we're trying to understand
climate change and the effect

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that climate change might have
on our planet in the future.

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>> The main question
we're trying

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to answer here is how
much carbon is stored

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in the forest ecosystems.

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We understand very well what's
happening in the atmosphere

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and the oceans but not
so much forested sites.

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>> And when it comes to forest
structure in particular,

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there is a huge hole
over Africa.

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We don't have the data that
we need anywhere in Africa.

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>> The one element that's
missing is us being able

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to map the vertical
structure of forests.

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When you look at an image, you
can tell there's forest there,

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you can tell it's green, but
we don't know how tall it is.

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If we can tell how tall it is,
then that's a very good proxy

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for how much it weighs and
with that you can infer biomass

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and with that you
can infer carbon.

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>> NASA has a few upcoming
missions to look at this,

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and so does the European
Space Agency.

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We have lots of different
things we're putting in space,

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but one of the main goals
of all of these missions is

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to count how much carbon is
stored in the earth's forests.

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So how we do that is essentially
measure how big the trees are.

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Especially here in the tropics,
most of the carbon is stored

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in the tree trunks
and above the ground,

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so we're measuring how fat the
trees are, how tall they are,

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and then comparing that to
our spaceborne measurements.

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>> 51.3.

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>> The picture is degraded,

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but it shows the carbon
cycling of the forest.

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The sun and the light would
actually shine on this forest

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and they absorb the
carbon from the atmosphere,

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from the photosynthetic
activities, and they grow.

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So as the forest grows,

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we capture more carbon
from the atmosphere.

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So the forests are
extremely important

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for global carbon cycle and
climate change because we --

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by having the forest,
we mitigate part

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of the carbon we put
in the atmosphere

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from our cars and our factories.

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[ Airplane Engine ]

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>> There is a very big effort

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to integrate the remote sensing
imagery with ground data.

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What we can get from remote
sensing is the vertical

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structure of the forest, but we
need people on the ground to tie

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that information to  biomass.

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The biomass is what
we're really after.

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And with ground plots, we
can make that connection

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between a height in the
particular plot and the biomass.

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>> So when we are
looking at the forest,

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we are very much interested
in this trip to look

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at the structure of the forest.

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The trees have irregular shape,
but the volume of the trees

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and the size of the trees is
extremely important for us

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because that tells us what
would be the mass of the forest.

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So if we measure the diameter
of the trees and tree height

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and know the wood density of
the trees, we get an estimate

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of the mass of the
tree, and almost half

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of the mass is carbon.

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So by measuring the size,
we actually get an estimate

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of the carbon in the forest,
and that helps us a lot

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to use our measurements
from the airborne sensors

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and from the satellites
to calibrate

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with that carbon on the ground.

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>> The mangroves
in Gabon are one

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of the tallest mangroves
in the world.

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We are interested to know
how the water circulates

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within this ecosystem, how it
comes in and out of the system.

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So once we understand the
hydrology of these systems,

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it helps us also understand how
these ecosystem really work.

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And what drives their
productivity.

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These mangroves are some

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of the most productive
ecosystems on earth.

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They stock a huge amount
of carbon, of which most

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of it is located and
captured in the soils.

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The advantage of the
airborne campaign

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over any other observations,
like spaceborne observations,

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is with airborne you can
go wherever you want,

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whenever you want.

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You can have almost real time
and designated campaign just

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to observe a given
phenomenon, like this one here,

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which is a mangrove ecosystem.

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What happens in these systems,
which are driven by hydrology,

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is that you have tidal
impact that comes in and out

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of these ecosystems twice a day.

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It's extremely dynamic.

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>> So you see where
the roots are dark,

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that's how high the tide goes.

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>> And you can only monitor
this kind of ecosystem

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with airborne sensors.

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The spaceborne sensors have
repeat pass periods in the order

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of weeks to months,

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so the airborne campaign
is optimum for that.

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In particular, the UAVSAR, we
are not only using it to try

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to estimate forest canopy height

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but we are also developing this
new technique whereby we can

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measure water level with
repeat pass interferometry.

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So we cover the same area
during a full tidal cycle

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as the water rises and
retreats from the ecosystem,

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and the UAVSAR can actually give
you this sort of measurement.

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We will be able to measure
the relative change in height

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of the water within
the ecosystems.

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And here we're setting up
probes in these systems

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that will be used in the
validation of the data sets

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and the measurement
from the UAVSAR.

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>> We use these data
to get a feeling

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for what the radar
images, the final product,

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is going to look like, and
we also provide these images

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to researchers on the ground
so they can decide where to go

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to do their field work.

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This is a region that's very
hard to do field work at,

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so the researchers have to be
smart about deciding a place

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to establish their field plots.

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Music

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We want to map forest
biomass globally,

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and the ultimate goal is to tie
that into the carbon cycles.

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It's important to understand
how that changes in space

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and in time, because this
will have consequences

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for management and policy.

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And in order to do that, we
need to see what the biomass is

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in different places of the
world and how forests respond

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to changes in climate and
changes in management.

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>> And now that we're,
you know, very interested

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in doing carbon accounting,
we've also found

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that mangroves store
large amounts of carbon,

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not only in the trees, and these
trees here in Gabon are huge,

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so they have a lot of carbon
in their trunks and their

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above ground biomass,
but there's also a lot

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of carbon that's stored
in the soils here.

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It's really, I think, important
to be able to try to account

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for that, so that we can
continue protecting them

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and just get a better
understanding